Cornell taps Michigan provost to lead Ivy League school

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — Cornell University trustees on Monday chose the provost of the University of Michigan as the Ivy League school's new president.

Martha Pollack will become the second female president of Cornell after Elizabeth Garrett, who died of colon cancer in March after less than a year of leading the upstate New York school. Garrett was 52.

Pollack said Garrett was very much in her thoughts as her appointment was announced. She said she wants to uphold the school's strong academic standards.

"I think it's really essential that Cornell continue to be one of the world's strongest universities," the 58-year-old Pollack said at a news conference.

Pollack said she will remain at Michigan though January and start her work at Cornell in April. An interim president, Hunter R. Rawlings III, has been leading Cornell since shortly after Garrett's death.

Pollack has studied artificial intelligence and has been a faculty member at Michigan since 2000. She is currently provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Michigan. She also is a professor of information and a professor of computer science and engineering.

Pollack received her bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College and a master's degree and doctorate in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania.